#191 – Daniel Schmachtenberger: Steering Civilization Away from Self-Destruction
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2021
⏱️ 262 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Daniel Schmachtenberger is a philosopher interested understanding the rise and fall of societies and individuals. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Daniel’s Website: https://civilizationemerging.com/
The Consilience Project: https://consilienceproject.org/
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:05) – Aliens and UFOs
(26:50) – Collective intelligence of human civilization
(34:46) – Consciousness
(46:08) – How much computation does the human brain perform?
(49:47) – Humans vs ants
(57:04) – Humans are apex predators
(1:04:08) – Girard’s Mimetic Theory of Desire
(1:24:05) – We can never completely understand reality
(1:27:29) – Self-terminating systems
(1:37:52) – Catastrophic risk
(2:08:04) – Adding more love to the world
(2:35:29) – How to build a better world
(2:52:41) – Meaning of life
(3:00:23) – Death
(3:06:04) – The role of government in society
(3:23:29) – Exponential growth of technology
(4:09:10) – Lessons from my father
(4:14:46) – Even suffering is filled with beauty
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Daniel Schmacktemberger, a founding member of the |
| 0:04.3 | Consilience Project that is aimed at improving public sense-making and dialogue. |
| 0:09.4 | He is interested in understanding how we humans can be the best version of ourselves as individuals |
| 0:15.3 | and as collectives at all scales. |
| 0:19.0 | Quick mention of our sponsors, ground news, net suite, forsegmatic, magic spoon, and |
| 0:24.8 | better help. |
| 0:25.8 | Check them out in the description to support this podcast. |
| 0:29.5 | As a side note, let me say that I got a chance to talk to Daniel on and off the mic for |
| 0:33.7 | a couple of days, which took a long walk the day before our conversation. |
| 0:37.9 | I really enjoyed meeting him, just on a basic human level. |
| 0:40.7 | We talked about the world around us with words that carried hope for our individual aunts |
| 0:46.2 | actually contributing something of value to the colony. |
| 0:50.1 | These conversations are the reasons I love human beings, our insatiable striving to |
| 0:54.6 | lessen the suffering in the world. |
| 0:56.7 | But more than that, there's a simple magic to two strangers, meaning for the first time |
| 1:01.6 | and sharing ideas, becoming fast friends and creating something that is far greater than |
| 1:06.4 | the sum of our parts. |
| 1:08.2 | I've gotten to experience some of that same magic here in Austin with a few new friends |
| 1:12.4 | and in random bars in my travels across this country, where a conversation leaves me with |
| 1:17.9 | a big stupa smile on my face and a new appreciation of this too short, too beautiful life. |
| 1:24.4 | Now is the part of the program where I do the advertisements. |
| 1:27.9 | I try to make these interesting, but I give you time stamps, so if you skip, please still |
... |
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